Visual Intuition

College tests separate those who intuitively understand a concept from those who don't. Intuition is what separates the "B" students from the "A" students. Students who achieve A's in their respective classes understand everything behind the process learning, whereas the B student merely memorizes a process to obtain a solution to a question. This only applies to technical classes such as Calculus or Physics because a class like History or Anthropology is purely based on memorized knowledge.

The way we learn is by listening, practicing, and reading and everything we learn in the sciences is a description about some phenomenon in nature. For example, if you derive a function of position you obtain a function of velocity, and if you derive a function of velocity then you obtain a function of acceleration. Students memorize this sequence of derivatives and never understand why and what this looks like graphically. The way we are taught in school(listening, practicing, and reading) is to memorize for a test and not understand the visual underlying reason for a concept.

A computer program where a concept in presented with a visual representation can be one way to instill intuition in students. A good example where this would come in handy is obtaining the volume of certain object through integration. When obtaining volume through integration you subtract one function(higher) from the (lower) function to obtain area. After doing so you integrate about a certain axis (x or y depending on the problem) to obtain the function for final volume. Our ability to intuitively understand this solely through practice, listening, and reading is extremely difficult due to the diversity of situations that which can be presented. Because of the diversity of situations, a concept like this one requires intuition because there is no one way to solve various types of problems. Rather than memorizing a process, these types of questions require This computer program would allow Professors to teach students by changing functions and parameters of various problems. With this in mind, if each step contained a visual representation on why it was taken, then instilling intuition would not be such a challenge for professors. The main perk about this program would be the responsiveness and speed of the visual representation to the changed function or parameter of a problem. This responsiveness would allow students to find patterns which in turn would help them with their understanding of the concept.

With almost everything becoming under the influence of computers and the internet, educational instruction has yet to have a breakthrough. Computers are used for their speed, and this would be an excellent way to take advantage it.